VNET Group Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:VNET)

VNET Group, Inc. – Unsponsored ADR (NASDAQ:VNET) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors acquired 13,552 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 160% compared to the typical daily volume of 5,212 call options.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Sean Shao sold 60,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $1.71, for a total value of $102,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 983,820 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,682,332.20. This represents a 5.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 12.10% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On VNET Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Triata Capital Ltd boosted its stake in VNET Group by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Triata Capital Ltd now owns 12,498,810 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $105,740,000 after purchasing an additional 550,841 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in VNET Group during the 4th quarter valued at about $65,650,000. Farallon Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in VNET Group by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. Farallon Capital Management LLC now owns 6,285,386 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $53,174,000 after buying an additional 796,266 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG raised its holdings in VNET Group by 73.2% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 4,283,660 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $44,250,000 after buying an additional 1,809,987 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its holdings in VNET Group by 674.8% in the second quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 3,343,088 shares of the information technology services provider’s stock worth $23,067,000 after buying an additional 2,911,604 shares during the last quarter. 72.83% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the company. Zacks Research upgraded VNET Group from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of VNET Group in a report on Wednesday, July 15th. Bank of America set a $16.30 price objective on VNET Group and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $24.79 target price on shares of VNET Group in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $16.00 target price on shares of VNET Group in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $17.40.

VNET Group Stock Up 1.7%

Shares of VNET stock traded up $0.12 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $7.45. 1,656,901 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,617,687. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $8.16 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.37. VNET Group has a 12-month low of $6.17 and a 12-month high of $14.48. The stock has a market cap of $2.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.44 and a beta of 0.32. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.99.

VNET Group (NASDAQ:VNET) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 26th. The information technology services provider reported ($1.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.03) by ($1.17). The company had revenue of $390.32 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $388.47 million. VNET Group had a negative return on equity of 31.59% and a negative net margin of 22.01%. On average, analysts expect that VNET Group will post -0.24 EPS for the current year.

VNET Group Company Profile

VNET Group, Inc (NASDAQ: VNET) is a leading carrier-neutral internet data center (IDC) services provider in China. Established in 1999 and headquartered in Beijing, the company delivers a full spectrum of infrastructure solutions that support the growing digital economy. Its core offerings include data center colocation, managed hosting, network connectivity, and disaster recovery services designed to meet the performance and reliability requirements of enterprise and internet content customers.

The company’s product portfolio spans private cloud, public cloud and hybrid cloud deployments, enabling clients to scale computing resources on demand.